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Can dying languages, like animals, be saved from extinction? That's the difficult question being debated in Maine, where the Penobscot Nation is waging a determined fight to keep its melodic language alive.

Valentine Ranco (left) speaks Penobscot fluently but laments having no Wells, Maine, neighbors who share her native tongue. Maine's Joe Dana, holding a carved "snake," helps children learn the Penobscot language with games like snowsnake. (Globe Staff Photo / Mark Wilson) Globe Staff Photo / Mark Wilson

By Stacey Chase

April 30, 2006

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BEFORE BEGINNING TODAY'S lesson, teacher Roger Paul, a dark ponytail hanging straight down his back, pulls a blond sweet-grass rope, braided like a little girl's pigtail, out of his leather medicine bag and sets one end on fire. Gathered in a lopsided circle are two boys and seven girls in the after-school language program at the Penobscot Nation Boys & ... (Full article: 2841 words)